Alexa

My mother is - to the best of my knowledge - the first known modern woman with the name “Alexa”. Born 5 April 1914 to John Alexander Logan Bachar (1885-1975) and Gertrude Lillian McCulloch (1887-1980) outside the Sierra Nevada foothill community of Applegate, California. My grandparents fully expected a boy and had no girl name in mind. They finally decided to take the first five letters of the father’s name (he never went by “John”)... and thus “Alexa” came about. She grew up in Nevada and California, went to a nursing college in San Francisco where she met my father, never once encountering any other girl by that name. Then during World War II my parents hosted at our home literally thousands of young sailors passing through the local USO - many of them just homesick teenagers away from home for the first time. Those dinners at my home being served by my mother, by now with four young sons, left a visible impression on many of these young men, for in the years following the end of the war my parents corresponded with many. They were at first surprised, then pleased when they would receive occasional birth announcements from more than a few of these same ex-sailors saying that they had named their daughter “Alexa” after my mother. Later I myself presented my mother with my first child, named appropriately: “Kimberley Alexa” - and she later would drop her given name, becoming just “Alexa” professionally as a singer. In my second marriage, our first child was named “Alexa Marie“ after my recently-deceased mother (17 October 1969) - thus giving me two daughters with the name Alexa long before that blasted computer company came along. Ironically, my next two brothers and I all were actually born at Children's Hospital on Lake Avenue in San Francisco - within blocks of the Amazon-Alexa HQ in the old Presidio complex. The bastardization of the name has caused both my daughters deep distress, but nothing can detract from the honourable origin of the name. I am only relieved neither of our parents did not live to see my mother’s good name so sullied.

Means "protector of mankind".

From the name [Alexander] meaning "Protector of Mankind".

A feminine form of the name 'Alexander' inspired by Alexander the Great. Has become very popular in recent years. It is usually said to mean "protector" or "protector of mankind".

An ancient Greek name, Alexa (f), Alexas (m).